Kavin Smith and Jay Donawa are just running for fun these days but their long contributions to track, cross country and road running have not been forgotten.

Their achievements will be recognised tomorrow when the Bermuda Pacers Track Club induct seven of their athletes into their first Hall of Fame at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club from 2 to 4pm.

The other inductees are Devon Bean, Brian Wellman, Terry Lynn Paynter, Leslie Rookes and Terrance Armstrong.

Smith is a nine-times winner of the Bermuda Day Half-Marathon while Donawa won 11 Bermuda national cross country titles.

Both joined the Pacers at their inception 35 years ago, with Smith running a few years before then after his father Clarence introduced him to the sport.

“My dad took me to everything, put me in the back of the car,” he recalls. “I just went along for the ride as an athlete. I wasn’t really a confident runner at that time.

“The Pacers opened the door to international competition, going out there with the big boys. It was an opening of the eyes to overseas competition.”

Following the Bermuda Striders, Clarence Smith would go on to be one of the founding members of the Bermuda Pacers along with Sandra Whitter, Joan Simons and Vernal Burns, so son Kavin moving on to the Pacers after they were formed was an easy switch.

He went to East Coast Invitational meets between 1979 and 1983 and also competed in Carifta Games and NACAC Cross Country Championships.

“My most disappointing Carifta was the one in Bermuda in 1980 when they cancelled my event, which would have been the first time for an under-17 800 metres event,” Smith said. “Apparently they didn’t have enough athletes so they cancelled that event. I was so upset I cried.”

Two years later Smith, 15, went to Jamaica and won both the 800 and 1,500 metres in record times of 1:56.7 and 4:07.80. “That’s when I went there with an attitude, I was hyped,” he said, referring to the disappointment of 1980. “I told my dad I was going down there to break some records.”

Those were the first medals for Smith at Carifta, going on to win two golds in the two events in 1983 and two more in 1985, six in total. He considers it an honour to be recognised by the Pacers for his contribution to the club and the sport in general.

“It’s definitely nice to be honoured for the things you have done. It’s an incentive for those people who are serious about running,” he said. “The Pacers were the starting meets of my life, they allowed me to get that exposure and solidify once I was able to get into the victory zone.”

Donawa first won a silver medal in the 800 metres at the East Coast Invitational Meet back in 1984. He went on to represent Bermuda in the Carifta Games, CAC and IAAF Cross Country Championships.

“Pacers is where it started,” Donawa said. “Cal Simons was my gym teacher, coming to West End [Primary] and introducing me to running and then on to the Pacers, so they married together.

“I feel without Pacers and Cal I probably wouldn’t have gotten into running like I did, so I’m totally indebted to the club and to Cal Simons. The club was such an important part of my introduction and then development because I competed with the club from age nine to 17.

“Everything during that period was the Pacers, and to go beyond that through high school in New Jersey and winning state titles, then college and now to have sons who have competed with the Pacers.

“My oldest son Justin started with the Pacers as an eight and under and went through the age groups. Now my youngest son [Jace] is in his third year with the Pacers. My brother Michael also competed through the years and won a number of medals at the East Coast in the 800 and 1,500 metres.

“We’ll always be linked with the Pacers who are such an important part of my and my family’s life. To be inducted into this Hall of Fame, out of all the things I’ve accomplished, is by far my greatest achievement. It’s phenomenal.

“Without the Pacers Jay Donawa probably would have attempted to play football or cricket. I owe everything to them.

“All of us who are being inducted into this Hall of Fame competed and travelled together. Then Kavin and Terrance Armstrong became rivals as we got older. Kavin was someone I looked up to because my first year at Warwick Secondary was his last year.

“Brian Wellman and Devon Bean were also there so we have that connection. The relationships and friendships forged, I wouldn’t trade for the world.”

Armstrong, now living abroad, joined the Pacers in 1983 and competed at the East Coast Invitational meet from 1985 to 1988 before going on to represent Bermuda at junior and senior CAC and Commonwealth Games. He also won three Bermuda Day Half-Marathon titles.

Wellman also started with the Pacers in 1983 and went on to become the island’s top triple jumper, winning gold at the 1985 East Coast meet and became a two-times Olympian and a world indoor champion in 1995.

“It was the start basically, that’s where it kicked off,” Wellman said during a press conference to announce the inductees. “Meeting everybody again brings back memories and it is an environment you love to be in.

“You didn’t realise when you began at the Pacers where the sport can take you. The year I won East Coast I jumped against people who were at college. They just measure your performance or pull out the stopwatch to see who is the best.

“Breaking it down to its simplest form is the one thing I can transfer from the Pacers to World Championships.”